UN voices alarm after WHO chief caught up in deadly Israeli strike on Yemen airport
Source: The Guardian
Thu 26 Dec 2024 20.32 EST
First published on Thu 26 Dec 2024 18.42 EST
The United Nations chief has denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, calling IDF strikes on targets including at the airport in Sana’a “especially alarming” after it came under attack while the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a. Houthi media said at least six people were killed.
A spokesperson for UN secretary general, António Guterres, said in a statement: “The secretary general condemns the escalation between Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a international airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming … “Today’s airstrikes follow around a year of escalatory actions by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the region that threaten civilians, regional stability and freedom of maritime navigation.”
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a social media post on Thursday that he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under aerial attack. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said, and at least two people were reported killed at the airport.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/27/israel-strike-yemen-sanaa-airport-world-health-organization-who-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus
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(Photo: Sky News)
In 2016, after the Saudi army intervened and lost in the Yemen Civil War, (Sunni) Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) initiated a naval blockade of Yemen, causing a man-made famine for the Shia Houthis. A UN panel of experts found that Saudi Arabia is purposefully obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid into Yemen.
In 2018, Save the Children estimated that 85,000 children had already died due to starvation before the blockade. In Nov 2018, according to a report by the NYT, 1.8 million children in Yemen were severely malnourished. 377,000 Houthis have lost their lives due to both direct and indirect consequences of the civil war—violence, hunger, disease, and displacement.
US Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said the US is complicit in this humanitarian disaster. See his exact comments in the archived link below.
Shia Iran (and Lebanese Hezbollah) helped the Houthis with food and arms so these Yemenis joined the "Shia Crescent." On behalf of Tehran, the Houthis counterattack Western shipping in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden or directly against Israel with drones. And for the past several years, USCENTCOM has been conducting anti-Houthi maritime operations.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_Yemen_(2016%E2%80%93present)
https://www.centcom.mil/
https://archive.is/dxEHV
https://news.sky.com/story/yemen-how-one-of-the-worlds-worst-humanitarian-disasters-could-get-even-worse-13111013
https://www.unrefugees.org/news/yemen-crisis-explained/
